


A World of Color

by orphan_account



Series: A World of Color [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, M/M, Soul Mate AU, Spans a whole lifetime, also, pretty much follows canon timeline still, rated teen because rin swears and that's inevitable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off this <a href="http://atrishasymphony.tumblr.com/post/84773089565/red-orca-pleasegodletmelive-owynsama">tumblr prompt</a>. When Haru is 4, he meets his soul mate, Makoto, and his world is filled with color. A story about learning to appreciate what he's always had, and how much Makoto means to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A World of Color

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Color Soulmate AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/48290) by apharthurkirklands. 



Green.

He was four years old when Haru first saw the colors. A lady who looked kind of like his mom, but with lighter hair came to his house, bringing a boy smaller than Haru with her.

“Haruka, this is Mrs. Tachibana and her son, Makoto-Kun. Come say hello, please?” A stubborn and usually unsociable child, Haru grabbed his mother’s pant leg and refused to look away from her shoes. Both women laughed as Haru’s mother apologized for his behavior.

He remained unmoving with as severe a pout as his four-year old face could muster, until a little hand tugged gently on his shirtsleeve. Haru refused to look until a quiet laugh forced him to confront the boy he thought was making fun of him. And so, with eyebrows downturned and eyes narrowed in what he hoped would be intimidating, he looked at the other boy.

And then he was crying. 

Was something wrong with him? Where before the world had been monochrome, suddenly everything was bright and overwhelming. Upon looking into the eyes of the younger boy, all he saw was (what he later learned was called “green”) an explosion of light that bled out into his surroundings. Everything was too intense, too different, and why?

It wasn’t until later that his mother and father tried to explain to him what had happened. But how do you explain something like soul mates to someone who is practically still a toddler? But Haru, seeing for the first time the blue of his mother’s eyes, and the creamy complexion of his father’s skin, paid careful attention to what they said.

“A soul mate is… It’s like your best friend. Like how mommy and daddy are best friends. We love each other very much, and so we take care of each other… And when you find that person… The world begins to fill with colors, Haruka. Like daddy’s shirt, that’s red. And mommy’s eyes, and yours too, that’s blue… That’s what happened to you today when you met Makoto-kun. And you don’t need to be afraid of it, because it will make the world so much more beautiful for you…”

//

By the time he was twelve, Haru could hardly remember what the world was like without color. And ever since that day, he’d kept Makoto close to him. Like his parents had said, he would take care of him the best way he knew how. But having that closeness made it difficult to allow others in.

When Rin Matsuoka came to Iwatobi Elementary, Haru could only think one thing: “troublesome.”

But nothing really changed until Rin found out that both Makoto and Haru could see the colors. He was shocked when Makoto mentioned Rin’s red hair, joking about his fiery personality.

“Wait… You know what those look like?” Having been able to see color for so long, Haru and Makoto sometimes forgot that many people hadn’t yet found their own soul mates. However, since Haru hardly ever talked to anyone besides Makoto, he had never found any issue in that topic of conversation. 

But it clearly bothered Rin. The envy was apparent in his crimson gaze, appearing more like an actual flame than his eyes. The flame only burned more intensely when he figured out that both Makoto and Haru could see colors. And for the first time, Haru wondered what he would be like if he hadn’t found Makoto so young, or at all.

A jolt of something strange coursed through him; not quite pain, but not quite pleasant either. Suddenly, Haru felt that he could relate to this outsider, to someone other than Makoto.

And his tiny world expanded, ever so slightly. And when they won their relay, Haru felt the colors brighten just a little more. Makoto’s eyes had never looked greener when he smiled at the four of them.

//

The colors never went away, but after his race with Rin over the winter break when he’d come back from Australia, Haru felt that all of them had suddenly changed. 

The ocean looked grayer, and the red brick that formed his school looked duller too. 

But Makoto never changed. No matter how… Unsure Haru felt (and about what? Beating Rin? Seeing his friend cry? Swimming, at all??), Makoto’s colors were as vibrant as ever. Some days, he clung to his friend, soaking up every particle of color he could get and basking in the warmth of it.

Other days, he felt like it was simply too much.

//

But then Rin came back. And Haru started swimming again with Makoto and Nagisa. And things seemed all right, mostly. 

The colors hadn’t changed at all. And Haru stopped paying attention to them as much.

Until Nagisa started seeing them too.

“I found him!” Nagisa rushed over to Haru and Makoto, skidding to a halt and doubling over to catch his breath.

“Another teammate?” Makoto inquired, as Nagisa had been incredibly persistent in searching out a fourth teammate for their newly formed swim club. 

“No! Well, yes and no!” Nagisa looked up at them, and his eyes were wide and watering, as if seeing them for the first time. He faltered for a moment until his smile grew impossibly wide. “Is it always this beautiful?” 

Makoto caught on first and pulled Nagisa into a quick hug. “You found your soul mate? Congratulations, Nagisa!” 

Haru stood quietly. He couldn’t remember how he felt when he found Makoto. He knew what his parents had told him, about how he cried (embarrassing) and that was it. All of a sudden, Haru felt cheated. Sure, he’d been able to see in color for years, but it hadn’t meant anything. Not like how it obviously did for Nagisa. 

As far as he could remember, Makoto had always been there with Haruka. And while he was happy for Nagisa, a small part of him was jealous too. Meeting his soul mate meant a great deal to Nagisa. Haru couldn’t even remember meeting Makoto. Could Makoto remember either? 

Did it mean anything to Makoto?

//

Nagisa did manage to get his soul mate to join the swim team. And Rei Ryuugazaki was completely useless until he’d somehow learned the butterfly stroke. 

But they were all out of shape, and it was decided they would have a training camp out among some islands.

The first day went well; difficult, but they had relatively enjoyed themselves despite how exhausted they felt. However when night fell, and Nagisa demanded to sleep in Haru’s tent, he could feel the awkwardness that surrounded the four boys.

“Nagisa,” Haru began quietly, after they had all gone to their respective tents. “Why didn’t you want to be in the same tent as Rei?” While he was confused, he was honestly more annoyed that he wasn’t sharing with Makoto, who let Haru go to sleep without loud chatter and incessant noises.

But Nagisa immediately quieted down and looked at his sleeping bag. 

“I’m worried.” Not understanding what Nagisa meant, Haru stayed quiet and kept his facial expression perfectly neutral. 

“It’s easy for you and Mako-Chan to be together, because you’ve always been together! But,” Nagisa hugged his penguin pillow tighter to his body, “I don’t know Rei-Chan yet. And I don’t want him to feel like I only want him on the team because we’re soul mates. I care about him a lot, I already know that... And I want to swim with him, just like I want to swim with you guys.” 

“Then tell him.” Haru turned on his side, facing away from Nagisa, unsure how else to respond. But Nagisa let out a quiet chuckle, and Haru was sure he probably nodded his head too.

“You’re right Haru-Chan. Good night.”

//

When Haru woke up, the hair on the back of his neck was prickling up almost painfully, and his heart beat erratically.

He sat up, listening to the storm rage outside of his tent, before climbing towards the entrance.

“…Ne, Haru-Chan??” came Nagisa’s sleepy voice, but Haru kept going.

Upon finding the other tent empty, he felt his blood run cold.

“Do you think they went to the bathroom?” Nagisa’s voice came from behind him as Haru pressed his hand down on the still-warm sleeping bag. 

Turning back to answer him, his eyesight suddenly darkened around the edges, the color seeping away from his peripheral vision. A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky and he saw two dark figures, bobbing frantically in the turbulent ocean. 

“Makoto! Rei!” Haru took off towards the water, shouting back at Nagisa, “Contact Miss Amakata!”

Two shirts blew through the air as Haru dove into the water, with Nagisa not far behind.

With muscles screaming for release, Haru pushed forward, Makoto’s body just in sight, and Rei not far in front of him. His arms hooked under Makoto’s as Nagisa swam ahead of him towards Rei, each wave dragging them under and spilling saltwater into their mouths. 

A shout amidst the crashing of waves and clap of thunder was all the warning Haru had before a large wave came hurtling down on he and Makoto. With no sense of direction, lungs burning and heart thundering in his chest, Haru kicked as hard as he could, his arms still tight around Makoto. 

After what felt like far too long, Haru broke the surface and pulled Makoto along with him, the beach a few yards in front of them. When his feet hit solid ground, he shifted his hold on Makoto, pulling one of Makoto’s arms around his shoulder and lugging towards the shore. 

When his body could take no more, and the threat of the water seemed far enough away from them, Haru collapsed on the sand. Makoto’s body lay next to him, eerily still. 

“Makoto, Makoto!” Haruka shook Makoto’s body, his worry increasing exponentially when the orange of Makoto’s swim trunks started fading into gray. It couldn’t be, Makoto couldn’t… 

He pressed his ear to Makoto’s chest, hearing a faint heartbeat. Was he injured? A further inspection of his body showed no damage, but then why was the color fading from Haru’s sight? This shouldn’t be happening!

A quiet, ragged breath escaped Makoto’s lips, sounding painfully labored. Haru’s eyes widened and he looked at his friend’s face. There must have been water in his lungs. Was Makoto drowning still? 

With shaking hands and eyes sight blurred from tears (when had he started crying?), Haru tilted Makoto’s head so that he could perform CPR. Inhaling a deep breath, he leaned in.

A burst of color blinded him as Makoto abruptly turned on his side and coughed. 

Haru would never forget how close he came to losing his best friend that night. 

// 

Something was bothering him. 

After the relay where everything was finally settled with Rin, and Haru felt balanced again, suddenly something was just off. 

He first noticed it when he saw Rei subtly hold Nagisa’s hand after swim practice as they left. The second time he detected that strange feeling was when Kou and Seijuuro announced that they were soul mates, and were now dating. It hit him again, more forcefully, when he saw Rin suddenly kiss Ai in front of all of them.

“He’s my soul mate, and it’s about damn time we stopped hiding that, so deal with it!” Was the only explanation they were given for this unexpected situation.

Haru knew that soul mates ended up getting married, most of the time. Sometimes though, they were simply best friends—people that you cared about deeply and who knew every corner of you, but that you weren’t attached to romantically. His grandmother had been that way. She had never seen the colors until after her husband died, years before Haru was born. It wasn’t until she met another widower her age that her world turned colorful. But both women had remained only the closest of friends until his grandmother passed away. 

That was how Haru always thought his relationship with Makoto would be. Romance had never really interested him, outside of his grandmother’s stories about her courtship with his grandfather, or myths like the red string of fate (which Haru was never certain was actually just a myth—if there was such a thing as soul mates that brought color to your world, certainly they were attached by some sort of string that was maybe invisible, instead of red?).

But he found himself wanting to take Makoto’s hand like Rei took Nagisa’s.

Did Makoto want that?

Did Haru really even want that?

//

One ordinary day, Makoto let himself into Haru’s house like usual, climbing the stairs to the bathroom to fetch him for school.

As the door slid open, and Haru looked up at his friend, smiling gently like always, Haru knew.

He wanted that. 

He wanted to hold Makoto’s hand. He wanted to hug him and tell others that he was his soul mate, and that he wouldn’t share him with anyone. 

So when Makoto offered his hand this morning to pull Haru out of the bath, Haru took it.

And he never let go.

//

Blue.

He was ninety-four when Makoto saw colors for the last time. It was a beautiful summer day, and Makoto was lying in bed, enjoying the heat that filtered in through the closed blinds and warmed his old bones. It felt like the older he got, the colder he was. 

Carefully rolling onto his side, Makoto smiled at the man lying next to him. Ninety years of his life had been spent with this man, and a tingling, tightening sensation still lingered in his throat when he thought about the fact that his best friend had loved him too. Gently running a hand through the now silver hair, Makoto gently murmured to his partner. 

Haru used to always wake early; now it seemed like he was sleeping in later and later. 

Blue eyes slowly opened and peered up at Makoto. A soft, wrinkled face nuzzled into his neck and he sighed in contentment, closing his eyes. 

“Love you, Haru.” 

“Love you too, Makoto.” Quiet breathing tickled his neck and he wrapped his arms around the smaller man. Slowly, almost so gradually that he didn’t notice, the body he held stilled. Makoto inhaled deeply and squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. 

When he could no longer hold his breath, Makoto opened his eyes with a trembling exhalation. 

Everything was black and white. 

Ninety years of color, and the last one he saw was blue.

**Author's Note:**

> Okayy, crap. Sorry if this feels super rushed in places, I just really loved the prompt, and wanted to write something asap. Which means this is not edited or betaed at aaaaall (though I would love for my stuff to be!).
> 
> Also, I ended up watching episode 6 a million times just to figure that entire scene out, and I still felt super lazy about it. So sorry againnnnn.
> 
> Lastly, I may or may not have made even myself cry with that ending scene. I was NOT expecting to end there, but I just felt like, it couldn't end with Haru accepting Makoto's hand and never letting go, blahblahblah. Instead. I decided to write Makoto experiencing Haru's death. And I cried.
> 
> To make it a little better, Makoto didn't wait long to follow Haru. They couldn't ever be apart for too long <3


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